Mark 4: 21-34….A Good Teacher doesn’t teach the whole subject in the one lesson!

And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Comment: I suggest that both the lamp and the light are the gospel message either spoken or written, It is not to be ‘hidden’ by refusing to listen or locking it away in an unused drawer, It is able to reveal the secrets of life! …..And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Comment: This states that hearing isn’t listening! And that you can measure BY YOUR CHOICE what the amount is that you actually take in of what the message states! There are consequences involved in what you choose to do! …… And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Comment: The ‘man’ of which this speaks is God or His agent in making the gospel heard. He is waiting until He chooses to reap the ‘gospel harvest’. The reaping day will come! What will be our harvest? What sort of soil are we? And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Comment: Compared to man’s great theories, philosophies and explanations the gospel seems to many to be insignificant foolishness. But from the ‘foolishness of the gospel’ will sprout the Kingdom of God in its majestic greatness – a huge tree grown from a very small seed! What do the birds represent? People who desire to rest in God or the hypocritical, heresy expounding agents, tools of the enemy, who seek to pervert the true meaning of the gospel? One or both of these types of ‘birds’ can settle in the church. Is the church equivalent to the kingdom of God?
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Proverbs 24: 10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. – Perseverance to the end is a great theme of the Bible!

Prayer: Thank you for feeding us in mouth sized bites. Lord Jesus!